The Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) searched the Hyderabad doctor’s home on 11th and 12th November as part of its investigation into the Ricin terror conspiracy. According to sources, the team removed unknown chemicals and raw materials in boxes from Dr Ahmed Mohiuddin Saiyed’s Rajendranagar flat while Cyberabad police officers monitored from a distance, reported The Indian Express.
The residence of the 36-year-old primary suspect in the bio-terror plot involving the lethal chemical also served as a “workshop.” The discovered “substances and material” are going to be tested at the Forensic Science Laboratory.
The sources disclosed that the accused’s interrogation revealed that he was yet to successfully isolate the toxin from Castor beans (Ricinus communis) and had not chosen the delivery method for the attack, prior to his arrest in Gujarat.
However, the investigators are actively examining the 2018 Ricin bomb plan in Cologne of Germany where Ricin was effectively extracted by a radicalised couple. Nevertheless, they were captured before any effort at an assault could be executed. According to an official from the nearby Rajendranagar police station, they didn’t know about the arrest until the Gujarat Police made the announcement.
Who is Dr Ahmed Mohiuddin Saiyed
According to sources, Saiyed is a general physician, single and stays alone in a flat in the five-story Asad Manzil apartment complex in Rajendranagar’s Fort View Colony. He completed his MBBS degree in China and provided patients with free internet consultations, He was not affiliated with any clinics or hospitals. Additionally, he was a business partner at an online eatery.
Saiyed is the oldest of six children. His family is from Khammam. He completed his Intermediate School education (classes 11 and 12) in Hanamkonda which is close to Warangal.
According to sources, he travelled to China in 2007 to obtain a “MBBS degree.” He lived in Khammam for a while after his return in 2012–2013 before moving to the Rajendranagar apartment. He reportedly became friends with a hotel owner and collaborated in an internet food joint that uses food delivery applications to sell sandwiches and shawarma.
However, authorities mentioned that when the local police enquired, the partner did not provide any information regarding Saiyed’s ownership stake in the company. According to evidence provided by the Gujarat ATS, when Saiyed’s brother Umar Faruqui was contacted from the Gujarat ATS Control Roo, he claimed that Saiyed made the trip to Gujarat “to seal a business deal.”
The police sources added that inquiries eventually showed that Saiyed’s family allegedly questioned him over the “parcels” he was getting, which frequently contained poisons. However, he promised them that he was developing a drug for commercial usage that would “make them wealthy.”
The Rajendranagar police officer noted that Faruqi informed them about the family’s relocation to Hyderabad approximately 20 years ago. They spent a few years in Mehdipatnam before moving to Tolichowki. They purchased apartments for the brothers and family to live in multiple places in the Upperpally neighbourhood four years ago.
Action underwary in the case
The recovery of the Castor Oil from Saiyed’s possession and evidence of the materials he purchased and where alongside his search history in ChatGPT and the search engine, are currently the two factors aside from the interrogation, that have led the officials to suspect a bioterror plot.
On 9th November, the Gujarat ATS informed that Saiyed was part of a suspected terror group and wanted to use Ricin to launch massive assaults. According to the ATS, his handler, Abu Khadija, is connected to the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) and is based in Afghanistan.
20-year-old tailor Azad Suleman Sheikh of Shamli and 23-year-old student Mohammad Suhail Mohammad Saleem Khan of Lakhimpur Kheri were also taken into custody from Banaskantha. The perpetrators have been charged under the Arms Act, the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
Sources stated that various ATS teams will go to the homes of the perpetrators and every location they had visited while planning this onslaught, following interrogation as officials will visit Lakhimpur Kheri and Shamli as well.
An officer conveyed that the culprits had told them that they had not yet planned that far ahead, were still working to separate Ricin and would have settled on the delivery method only after achieving that goal, regarding the scope of the planned terror attack and how they intended to use the chemical. The Gujarat ATS is also searching for any additional members of this group.
Ricin terror plot
The authorities apprehended a silver Ford Figo driven by Saiyed in front of the Adalaj Toll Plaza on the Ahmedabad-Mehsana Road, busting the Ricin terror plot. Superintendent of Police K Siddharth’s ATS squad retrieved two Glock handguns, one Beretta handgun, thirty live rounds and over four litres of castor oil kept in a ten-litre plastic container from the vehicle.
The Gujarat ATS then caught the other two men based on forensic analysis of digital devices taken from his possession. They are accused of collecting up the weapons and cartridges from a dead drop close to the international border with Pakistan in Rajasthan and delivering them to Saiyed who was also in touch with several Pakistani people.
These men had even recced a number of religious and organisational structures such as the offices of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in Ahmedabad, Delhi and Lucknow to assess security measures and crowd patterns. Over the previous six months, they scouted the fruit market in Naroda of Ahmedabad and the Agriculture Produce Market Committee in Azadpur, Delhi.